Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - The Great Amazon Dub Flub
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anime-prime
Posts: 81 |
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Not that this excuses Amazon for experimenting in the first place, but the reason they chose those anime titles in the first place is likely primarily due to them nearing the end of their license periods. It wouldn't make sense to give them normal dubs when they won't have them for that long, so they made for convenient test subjects. They were never going to be given normal dubs by Amazon.
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Sailorpeter3
Posts: 28 |
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That makes sense also. It is worth noting that since these had preexisting dubs so this AI stuff was way easier even if it is terrible,
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2995 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Banana Fish never had a pre-existing dub, and even though No Game No Life did have a dub the AI-produced one was not based on it, since apparently none of the voices in NGNL's AI dub sounded anything like the pre-existing Sentai cast. No, these were AI dubs based solely on trying to recreate the sound of the Japanese casts, which would explain to some extent why they sounded so awkward. If they were based on English voice work then they probably would have sounded (ever so slightly) more "natural", though still not good I'm sure. |
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Raebo101
 Posts: 863 |
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Love and Peace, indeed. I appreciate that this column ended on a somewhat optimistic note
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5343 |
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In many ways, especially with anime production, the process takes advantage of the creatives doing this stuff because they love to do it. Now, companies would prefer to outright remove people, and therefore the passion, from it entirely.
The idea that the new jobs will be to check and fix the AI product is a joke. Companies want to push it out and hope that they finally hit the point where the audience thinks it is good enough or doesn't care. You can't tell me that anyone checked these AI dubs and thought they were actually good enough. And if they did, then it's obvious that it wasn't someone with ADR experience. That is the other problem. It's supposedly a good thing that AI will take over the "boring" stuff that is usually the on-the-job training for new people. The ones checking it over, if they exist, won't have the foundation to know how to fix it. One thing that makes this a bit different is that Amazon may have stepped in it with the rights owners. It's bad enough when a rando rips off your stuff to stick into Sora, but a contracted partner? Now you've run afoul of them in particular. Not only did an AI dub of NGL serve no purpose since a real dub exists, but the Amazon page for it was specifically for the Japanese subbed version. Amazon chose not to pay for the dub streaming, and then did it anyway. Once again, we see that the way that a company with plenty of money to spend wants to use AI is to deliver the minimum to the customers, reduce its own costs while still charging full price, and pocket the difference. |
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FishLion
 Crazy Fangirl Posts: 856 |
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The more this topic comes up the more I realize the legality will really sink these kinds of projects.
Contracts are purposefully very specific with what publishing you can do and they will probably be even more ironclad now with stuff like this happening, so we can forget autotranslate being the norm. I'm also encouraged no one wants to touch this dub and immediately disavowed it. It's true that some Japanese studios or directors might be excited about AI usage, but I think their goal is to either increase quality or maintain quality while decreasing cost. I personally doubt AI will ever aid them with those goals in a way that is worth the costs, but I'm pretty dang sure none of them wanted this. They understand that the unique creative direction and quality of anime is what sets it apart as a medium and that compromising their work's reputation as a top notch product is far more harmful to their image than whatever costs a good dub may incur. Anyway, with publishers and fans hating this quality in addition to the legal mind field of purposefully publishing an alternate language dub that was never approved and they never had the rights to, I think it's safe to say this use of AI does not have the legs to save anyone money. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 753 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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Wait, so that means someone might be able to rescue Banana Fish and it won't be stuck in Amazon Jail anymore? |
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Zendervai
 Posts: 263 |
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Banana Fish is the last of the Amazon Noitamina deal. Some of the earlier ones got license rescued and released separately (like Discotek getting their hands on Great Passage) and they've all been gradually disappearing from Prime video globally or showing up on other services. IIRC, because Banana Fish is the longest show Prime got from the deal, that extends the license a little bit further, but it's unlikely that Prime is going to fork out the cash to keep it exclusive. |
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anime-prime
Posts: 81 |
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Zendervai
Posts: 263 |
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No, they would have been separate licenses. The blanket deal ended with Banana Fish, which is why Promised Neverland, Sarazanmai and Given all immediately went to Funimation/Crunchyroll. The guess is that the Noitamina deal really didn't work out for Amazon (because like...going from a zombie apocalypse action show to a low-key baseball show to a drama about making a dictionary to a really intense character drama is not a thread that's easy to advertise, if Amazon was bothering at all) and they didn't bother renewing the deal. |
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anime-prime
Posts: 81 |
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mdo7
 Posts: 8212 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Ugh, don't bother to have my opinion added into it. I just got frustrated hearing these robotic-sounding dub when hearing it via social media. As I said previously, that's what many voice actors/actresses in the industry have always feared and warned about. Amazon's use of A.I dub kind of proves their point.
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JRPictures
 Posts: 156 Location: Australia |
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Man, as the guy who posted the Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus screencap used in this article, crazy how much traction it's gotten over the week. Almost offsets how depressing (and funny) A.I. can get speaking lines so horribly wrong.
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TheBeron
Posts: 29 |
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In Germany, publisher peppermint Anime announced this summer that they acquired the licence to Banana Fish for a home video release next year, while currently Amazon is still holding the streaming rights here too. Either the Amazon rights are ending until summer or Amazon's deal is not affecting licencing to other companies. The German publisher's first reaction on the AI-dub was to make a big post, discerning that they are producing a dub "with real voice actors for real fans". |
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bluebaron
Posts: 157 |
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So... Those "dubs" are lost media now?
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